Suggestions on what I should attempt here? I totally stop taking it (but then afraid my estrogen will skyrocket even more as it was 34 a few weeks ago (this is week #2 on a lower test dose). Or should I literally only take 1 anstrozole a week for now and divide that into 2 doses the day after each injection? Or should I find a different estrogen blocker and if so any recommendations?

Well I had no suggestions but I will update in case anyone has the same issues so they can refer to this.

I only took one 1mg anastrozole last week and I divided that up into 2 days. My skin got EXTREMELY greasy by the end of the week and I started to break out in acne. I did not have the sick feeling though like I had every other week so I am pretty sure that was the contributing factor.

This week is my 3rd week of my lower T and HCG doses. Took my T shot this morning (I divide my shots into 2x per week) and this evening took 1/2 of a anastrozole. I will take 1/2 tomorrow eve as well as my skin has been getting worse all week and I have a ton of water retention.

I am wondering if anastrozole just does not get the job done for me? And wondering if I should switch to exemestane.

Honestly I keep thinking to myself this is such a pain trying to figure out to the point of wanting to say f it and give up. But then I remember how I felt previous to this and do not want to go back there ever. But the hair loss is also really bothering me. It has been 6 months now trying to figure this out. Very very upsetting.

You’ve got a lot of moving parts going on here. I have no AI experience (although I’ve been prescribed one), but I know from reading that you were on a seriously high dose.

So are you staying off the anastrozole now that things seem stable? I know how you feel about giving up, it’s been a tough ride for me as well. But I also know I’m never coming off of TRT again, withdrawal is hell.

I got my blood work back so figured I would give an update with numbers and everything. Since last post I have not dropped Anastrozole any more. I tried and I could tell my estrogen levels would bounce up too high. I would get very greasy skin, acne within a few days, bloat, etc. I am still having erectile issues. And I am still having bad depression issues. I talk to the Dr. next week. I am pretty sure from what everyone said here that the anastrozole is causing my hair thinning and depression. But what do I do? If I don’t take estrogen shoots up. It is like a lose lose situation. Is there something else I could take?

So if anyone has any suggestions to my above issues I am all ears. Not sure how to control estrogen without a AI. If I switch to a different AI will I have the same sides or possibly no? I tend to get the worst sides of a lot of things unfortunately.

I would take less per week. Instead of 200 why don’t you try 160 weekly split over 3 shots? Maybe 2 a week…: your taking so much T … at this point if I was in your shoes I would drop my dosage, totally let go of the AI and start microdosig.

The whole point behind microdosing is to control e2.

Also you don’t wait a week for ai to clear your system. Give it 2 weeks.

Otherwise take ai very low dosages to ween off. .125 day after shot and that’s all. Not this .5 junk. My doc prescribed me .6 total per week with 200mg. But I don’t take any and I don’t take 200mg. It’s the highest most docs will prescribe .

I am not taking 200. I am taking 100 split into 2x a week. The way I wrote it was confusing…my apologies there. And I did totally drop the AI for a week and depression was level 10 on a scale of 1-5. Not a good place to be in.

I guess what i meant was, if you still have issues you can always lower the dose per week. if your at 100 x 2, then try 90 x 2. We need to find what our body likes and stick to it. I believe after a long time being on TRT we can increase dosages without as many side effects… i think… but for us newbies we really gotta try to find that dose that suits us. i am still trying to reach that and just sharing my knowledge.

Yeah that is a good idea. And this entire process can be confusing. When you really dive deep into things. I will read @ksman posts and get totally lost. He is extremely knowledgeable but sometimes it can get confusing.

What is considered a “good” range for Free T? I had a total of 1965 and a Free T of 414.6.

Sorry @highpull I realize Im responding to a post of yours from Nov 2018.

No problem, yeah, those are pretty high, assuming labs were drawn at trough. What dosage got you to these levels? If it was necessary to get you feeling good I’d be fine with these levels, but would want to see overall labs, E2, lipids, etc.

It was a midway reading between a 3.5 day protocol so not trough. The protocol was 90mg E3.5D and I was taking .75mg anastrozole with each shot. E2 was 54. And yes I was searching for a dose that had me feeling good.

Loved it, felt great, gym was going great but I don’t want to take the AI anymore. I brought my dose down through December and January for doc appts. Now I am trying an EOD protocol with my dose back up again.

Do you see any issue with have the free T so high? I am used to seeing guys with a total T of 1500 and a free T of like 40 or 50. What does it mean? What does it affect?